Jun 20, 2026 | Gustav Klimt led one of the most extraordinary lives in the history of Western art. Born the son of a struggling goldsmith in 1862, Klimt went from poverty-stricken beginnings on the outskirts of Vienna to the heights of European artistic fame.
He painted the grand halls of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before throwing it all aside in pursuit of a far more radical vision.
In this video, we trace the full arc of Klimt's life and work: from his early days as a celebrated architectural muralist, through the founding of the Vienna Secession, to the scandalous university paintings that turned the establishment against him, and the remarkable Golden Phase that produced a new generation of masterpieces.
Creating a visual language unlike anything seen before, Klimt's legacy leaves a vivid, gilded, and unflinching world which has never stopped speaking to us.
To mark the 150th anniversary of the artist’s birth and the 100th anniversary of his participation in the Biennale in Venice 1910 Klimt is featured in a special
With many thanks to Floornature on Pinterest for this great image.
A portrait by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. Adele Bloch-Bauer died in 1925. The painting was stolen by the Nazis in Vienna after the Anschluss (also Anschluß) (Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria) in March 1938. This portrait is the one used in the film, Woman in Gold. The film is about Maria Altman’s fight to get the painting returned to her family after it had been misappropriated by the Nazis after the Anschluss. The movie is excellent and well worth watching.
Many thanks to The Art Diva on Pinterest for this delightful image.
LE MONDE: Le tableau avait été subtilisé en février 1997, alors que le Musée d’art moderne Ricci Oddi de Piacenza était fermé pour travaux.
Un tableau retrouvé par hasard il y a cinq semaines à Piacenza, dans le nord-ouest de l’Italie, est bien un original de Gustav Klimt, volé il y a vingt ans dans la même ville. « C’est avec une grande émotion que je peux vous dire que le tableau retrouvé est authentique », a déclaré Ornella Chicca, une magistrate chargée de l’enquête, lors d’une conférence de presse organisée vendredi 17 janvier. » | Le Monde avec AFP | vendredi 17. janvier 2020
Gustav Klimt's 1907 'Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I' (Public domain)
TIMES OF ISRAEL: The real-life lawyer behind the gripping restitution of the ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I’ says he still gets emotional in the painting’s presence
NEW YORK — The Neue Galerie, a mid-sized museum on Fifth Avenue and East 86th Street in Manhattan, gets pretty crowded around lunch. The Café Sabarasky (named for the institution’s co-founder Serge Sabarasky, who opened the Neue in late 2001 with Ronald Lauder) is a hot draw, but the artwork lingers longer than the pastries.
On the second floor of this converted mansion, designed by legendary Gilded Age architects Carrère and Hastings and once owned by Grace Vanderbilt, there hangs the portrait of a woman who died 90 years ago. Her story is still being told.
Adele Bloch-Bauer was part of a prominent Austrian-Jewish family, patrons of the arts whose belongings were plundered by the Nazis. Among the works stolen were two portraits of Adele by Gustav Klimt, commissioned by her husband. The first – with gold leaf applied directly to the canvas – is the more famous. “A painting sold on refrigerator magnets” as Charles Dance’s character, a lawyer skeptical about restituting the work to its rightful owner, reminds us in the new movie “Woman in Gold.”
After World War II, surviving members of the Bloch-Bauer family escaped to the United States. Their artwork remained behind – the “last prisoners of war.” The case of “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” made international headlines (and has been the subject of documentaries) but “Woman in Gold” is the first time it has been dramatized. » | Jordan Hoffman | Thursday, March 26, 2015
